Communicating Climate Change with the European Centre-right

This is the first report on this theme written for a European audience. It follows a 2013 report on communicating with a centre-right audiences in Britain. The approach taken is strongly grounded in the wider research into political values and framing and is intended to complement similar research in the US.

Highlights:

The Climate Outreach Information Network (COIN) has released the first report in Europe to look in detail at the frames and narratives that could work for a centre-right audience.

Although centre-right voters are a critically important sector of the population and centre-right politics dominates the European parliament and governments across Europe, they have been largely neglected by climate change communicators.

COIN argues that climate change communications has tended to reflect the values of Greens and left-leaning environmentalists. Drawing on a large body of international research, COIN shows that these existing narratives are challenging to people with conservative values. For this reason, in many countries conservatives are still substantially less inclined than progressives to accept that climate change is a major threat.

We argue that conservatives require different narratives that can speak better to their values. Drawing on academic research, expert interviews and the speeches of centre-right Members of European parliament, we identified ten frames and three detailed narratives for this audience. We conclude by showing this language in action in the climate change speeches of two conservative communicators: Angela Merkel and Margaret Thatcher.

However, we also emphasise the research finds that people's trust in a communicator is often the single most important component of accepting their message. We therefore recommend that campaigners work more closely with centre-right communicators, and that they in turn prioritise speaking within their own networks.

The report is essential reading for all climate change communicators and anyone in the centre-right trying to mobilise concern and action.

Download the report at http://www.climateoutreach.org.uk/a-new-european-conversation/

COIN is a charitable company, limited by guarantee, founded in 2004 to increase public understanding and awareness of climate change. Charity registration number 1123315, company number is 06459313, registered in England and Wales. Donate to COIN online